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Desktop focus and all windows move to internal laptop screen despite the primary flag on external monitor after enabling laptop screen again using xrandr command or Super-P

How to keep open windows and desktop focus on primary external monitor for dual screen?

Example:

TOP - external monitor VGA-0 --primary
BOTTOM - internal laptop screen LVDS-0

Desktop panel and open windows stay on the primary external monitor, good.

Desired:

TOP - internal laptop screen LVDS-0
BOTTOM - external monitor VGA-0 --primary

Enable dual screen layout with laptop internal screen at top but secondary and external monitor at bottom but primary. Desktop panel and open windows move to the secondary laptop monitor despite the primary flag on external monitor (undesired).

Command:

xranxr --output LVDS-0 --off

Disable the internal laptop screen and only use primary external monitor.

xrandr --output VGA-0 --auto --primary --below LVDS-0 --output LVDS-0 --auto

crtc 0:    1280x1024  60.02 +0+900 "VGA-0"
crtc 1:     1440x900  60.00 +0+0 "LVDS-0"

Re-enable the internal laptop screen and use along external as desired.

inxi -G

Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA G96M [GeForce 9650M GT]
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: nvidia (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,nouveau)
           Resolution: [email protected], [email protected]
           GLX Renderer: GeForce 9650M GT/PCIe/SSE2 GLX Version: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 340.102

lshw -C display

  *-display               
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: G96M [GeForce 9650M GT]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: a1
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
       resources: irq:35 memory:fc000000-fcffffff memory:d0000000-dfffffff memory:fa000000-fbffffff ioport:cc00(size=128) memory:fde80000-fdefffff

Resources:
https://superuser.com/questions/414646/xfce-cant-set-primary-monitor-in-xrandr
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/290346/xfce4-display-settings-why-is-there-no-extend-to-the-left/350670#350670
Dual monitor applications opening on wrong monitor
https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8328
http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=6440
and many more...

Community
  • 1
Vasek Codey Vlcek
  • 21
  • Understood, thanks for the feedback. Hopefully current form makes the question more clear to understand without additional information beyond bare basics? – Vasek Codey Vlcek Mar 22 '17 at 10:19
  • OK I changed my vote and started the reopening of the question (it might take a while). Please add information on your laptop, including, the output of lshw -C display command. – Mark Kirby Mar 22 '17 at 10:23
  • We also need to know your graphics card (should be in the output of the lshw command Mark asked for) and the driver you use for it. The simplest way to get this information is to install inxi (sudo apt-get install inxi) and then run inxi -G. Finally, also show us the exact xrandr command you are using to set up your layout. Please [edit] your question to add this information, don't put it in the comments. – terdon Mar 22 '17 at 10:28
  • Is there a question? – Organic Marble Mar 22 '17 at 13:27
  • 1
    @OrganicMarble admittedly hard to find but I believe the question is "How to keep open windows and desktop focus on primary external monitor for dual screen?" – Elder Geek Mar 23 '17 at 14:13

0 Answers0